In Beloved, Toni Morrison portrays the barbarity and cruelty of slavery. She emphasizes the African American’s desire for a new life as they try to escape their past while claiming their freedom and creating a sense of community. In Beloved, "Much of the characters’ pain occurs as they reconstruct themselves, their families, and their communities after the devastation of slavery" (Kubitschek 115). Throughout the novel, Morrison uses color to symbolically represent a life complete with happiness, freedom, and safety, as well as involvement in community and family. In many scenes, Morrison uses color to convey a character's desire for such a life; while, in other instances, Morrison utilizes color to illustrate the satisfaction and fulfillment, which the characters experience once they achieve this life.
Morrison uses color to symbolize the life Paul D desires as he is heading North. When Paul D asks the Cherokee man “how he might get North. Free North. Magical North,” (Morrison 112) he conveys his desire for a free, safe, happy and even somewhat magical life. Equating color with this life, the Cherokee man replies, “Follow the tree flowers.” When one thinks about or describes flowers, their colors are always import
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Before Suggs threw a party to celebrate her united family and new found happiness, she was venerated by the black community. Morrison shows this by subtracting color from Sethe’s life and making her “as color conscious as a hen” (38). The fact that Sethe had the cloth in her possession, yet could not sew with it while she was a slave implies that she was not living the life she desired. Morrison uses this absence of color to express that Suggs had lived the life which she had longed for.
Sethe’s life was filled with vivid colors from the time she escapes slavery until Beloved dies. All around her was thick, soft and blue” (Morrison 253). [and] her sons were holding hands in the yard, terrified of letting go,” Baby Suggs “just up and quit” (Morrison 177). She did not experience independence, freedom, safety nor a sense of community when she was a slave. For, “she had never had time to see, let alone enjoy it before” (Morrison 201). The effects of slavery have destroyed her family, community and even freedom. Walking through the neighborhood, Denver noticed the “yellow shutters. After her celebration feast, when “Sethe was in jail with her nursing baby. For her entire life, Denver was imprisoned by the possessive love of her mother.
Approximate Word count =
1974
Approximate Pages =
8 (250 words per page double spaced)
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